Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Are the mullahs laughing today?

From Hugh Hewitt: a somewhat terrifying snippet on Iran... and John Kerry's preternatural attempts at appeasement of the Mullahs. Apparently, Senator Kerry hasn't been hitting the history books. Appeasement of avowed, suicidal terrorists bearing nuclear weapons? What in the name of Hillary can he be thinking?

John Kerry has sent John Edwards out to offer the Iranian rulers a "great deal," according to the Washington Post: They get to have reactors while others supply the fuel, but only if they promise not to produce bombs. And if they don't sign on to pretending not to build nukes? "Heavy sanctions." Really. Do you suppose the mullahs are more intimidated by the prospect of Kerry-Edwards or of Bush-Cheney? Here are a couple of key graphs:

"Iran has insisted that it be allowed to produce nuclear fuel, which would give it access to weapons-grade material. Under Kerry's proposal, the Iranian fuel supply would be supervised and provided by other countries."

"Experts on Iran have long speculated that some sort of 'grand bargain' that would cover the nuclear programs, a lifting of sanctions and renewed relations with the United States would help solve the impasse between the two countries... "Experts?" Which experts? Madeline Albright and Sandy Berger?

...But if anyone does bite on the Kerry-to-Tehran "grand bargain" nonsense, they ought to be asking the questions that were not asked of North Korea in 1994, which led to the crisis in that country. Kerry-Edwards are proposing to appease Iran --it is that simple. It did not work with North Korea and it will not work with Iran.

Something tells me Bush holds all the aces

At the beginning of the year, Thomas Lifson, who was at Harvard Business School with George W Bush, made an interesting observation about the President. He notes that young George "was a very avid and skillful poker player" when he was a Business Administration student and that "one of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W Bush's political career" ...

...Kerry is in seclusion, unable to expose himself to any but the most sycophantic interviewers, and getting whumped by hundreds upon hundreds of fellow Swift boat veterans, plus former POWs, plus retired admirals, over every aspect of his brief stay in the Mekong Delta.

The Senator put his money on the wrong war... The fact is, even if Kerry was a Republican, these Swift boat guys would be hounding him...

...A poll in The Los Angeles Times shows that 3 per cent of Republicans are voting for Kerry, but 15 per cent of Democrats - mainly "conservative Democrats" - are planning to vote for Bush...

New Zogby Poll Gives Bush Lead in Undecideds

NEW ZOGBY POLL GIVES BUSH 25% LEAD OVER KERRY IN UNDECIDED VOTERS -
Undecided Voters Speak Out; Bush Favored Over Kerry by 25 Points (35%-10%); 67% Say they “Like Bush As A Person”; 40% Watch Fox Most for News; ... Poll Reveals On the eve of the Republican National Convention, President George W. Bush is favored by twenty-five points over Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (35%-10%) among undecided likely voters when Libertarian, Constitution and Green Party presidential candidates are factored into the 2004 presidential race, according to a new Zogby/Williams Identity poll...

The Dangerous Secret

...Of course, the specific accusations that John Kerry has lied about his service in Vietnam have to be addressed. The Cambodia story, for one, seems mistaken... What's telling is the lack of support from even his friendly crewmates, and Kerry's own prevarications. The Washington Post (no friend of Kerry's critics) has called Kerry's conflicting statements on the Cambodia mission troubling. Given all this, I don't see how the accusations of Kerry's critics can be dismissed as a smear...

...The editorial page of the Washington Post has called for Kerry to release his military records and wartime journals...

Monday, August 30, 2004

Gen. Tommy Franks on Iran

Hugh Hewitt posted a brief interview with General Tommy Franks. I have excerpted the items of special interest: namely, Iran.

HH: "Do you expect a confrontation with Iran in the next couple of years, and if so, any doubt in your mind about how that would go?"

TF: "There is no doubt how it would go. I don't know whether to expect it or not. I personally hope not, but on the other hand, hope is not a method, as you and I both know. One thing that I do believe very firmly is that the world is a better place, a safer place, and so is our country, because Saddam Hussein is no longer in Iraq, at least in charge, and the Taliban are no longer in charge in Afghanistan because what happens is, when a sanctuary is created, the bad guys --the terrorists-- can operate out of the sanctuary. If we don't see that happening in Iran, we should be very, very thoughtful before we do something. If we do see that happening in Iran, I am afraid we will have to take care of it, Hugh."

...

HH: "But I mean, did you see evidence that Al Qaeda was coming across the border from Afghanistan, after the Afghanistan war?"

TF: "You talking about into Iran?"

HH: "Yes."

TF: "Yes. Yes. But what we have seen is transitory, we have seen transits, but I don't think we have seen the staging of Al Qaeda out of Iran."

Hmmm. It doesn't take much guesswork to puzzle out what the opinion of General Franks is about what the automatic reaction to the presence of Al Qaeda in Iran ought to be, which I believe would apply equally to any known terrorist groups found to be operating there. Those are the realities of the post 9/11 world, realities not well suited to a waffler like Kerry.

Old Media in Retreat

It is perhaps impolite to note that it took the Times nearly four months to catch up with the reporting Carl Cameron did in the beginning of May.

STILL, the baying of the Times and the rest of the old media is a sign of capitulation. Against their will, the best-funded and most prestigious journalists in America have been forced to cover a story they want no part of--or at the very least, they've been compelled to explain why they aren't covering it...

...James O'Shea is right. An informal network--the new media--has arisen that has the power to push stories into the old media. The combination of talk radio, a publishing house, blogs, and Fox News has given conservatives a voice independent of the old media...

...John Hinderaker, one of the bloggers behind Powerline, summed up the mood of the blogosphere by comparing journalism with brain surgery: "A bunch of amateurs, no matter how smart and enthusiastic, could never outperform professional neurosurgeons, because they lack the specialized training and experience necessary for that field," he said. "But what qualifications, exactly, does it take to be a journalist? What can they do that we can't? Nothing."

POW/MIA

John Kerry sold out our Prisoners of War and Missing in Action in favor of Trade Relations with Vietnam. Why?

"In retrospect, it is clear that John Kerry had but one goal as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. His goal was to remove the issue of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, as a roadblock to trade and normalization of relations with Vietnam. The question is.... why?

...In June of 1993, as reported in a Boston Herald article by Michael E. Knell, "Colliers International brokered a $905 million dollar deal to develop a deep sea port in Vietnam.." ...At the time the deal was brokered, C. Stewart Forbes was the Chief Executive Officer of Colliers International.

...Did Kerry have an another agenda, beyond the stated goals of the committee? Before you answer that question, there is one other piece of information you need to know. C. Stewart Forbes CEO of Colliers International and John Forbes Kerry are cousins."

A Survivor's Story

Touching story of the fight against Communism.

...As WWII was drawing to a close, my mother was arrested and taken to a Communist prison camp where she spent 5 years as a guest of the Soviet Union. Her crime was being a German farm girl in Poland. The war was still raging and one day a shipment of captured German soldiers arrived. The badly wounded amongst them were separated, and those soldiers still able to walk and work were made to dig a ditch and when that task was completed, the Russians ordered the wounded to be thrown into the ditch and buried alive. Those who balked were shot. The screaming was terrible, and even as the soil was piled on, those boys desperately attempted to save themselves. The earth moved for what seemed like an eternity, but by morning all was still. Those German soldiers were between 12 and 15 years of age. For a teenage farm girl, this horror was almost too much to bear, nevertheless she survived to bear witness, but after her release in 1950, nobody was listening.

Fast forward to the 1960's when President Kennedy proclaimed to the world that the United States was willing to "..., pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, ..." so that Liberty and Freedom would prevail. To those who had experienced first hand, the brutality of Communist rule, U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a noble and just cause, and at the onset we did not think that the U.S would lose, and yet, that is precisely what happened. This conflict, in which so many young men gave their lives, was subverted from within, by men such as John Kerry, and this subversion continues even today. It seems that many still describe the Vietnam conflict as a confused mess with no purpose, but for those of us on the outside it was a case of a brutal ideology proclaiming victory over the only country capable of defending freedom in this world. This loss of nerve by the leaders of the free world would have tragic consequences.

Despite Kerry's assurances to the contrary, a bloodbath did ensue and upwards of a million people set sail in rickety boats in an attempt to escape the executions, gulags, and slave labour camps of the Workers Paradise of Vietnam. An unknown number lost their lives in the attempt. A further million people were murdered in Cambodia at the hands of the Khmer Rouge as Pol Pot sought to build a Utopia on this earth.

John Kerry and others of his ilk are morally responsible for contributing to this colossal tragedy. His lies to the Senate helped divert the United States from a costly but noble struggle against a murderous and vicious ideology. To think that the moral heir to Tokyo Rose and Lord Ha-Ha is now running for President is repugnant to those for whom freedom is a rare and precious commodity.

I am not an American and I did not fight in any war, but I am profoundly grateful to the United States of America for being a beacon of light in a very dark world...

The Assassinations

Declassified FBI documents identified John Kerry as having attended a VVAW meeting in Kansas City, Misouri in the house of one of the members. Scot Camil , VVAW Regional Coordinator from Florida was running the meeting. Camil proposed the establishment of "readiness groups" of the "Phoenix type."

VVAW secretly voted on a proposal to kill six pro-war senators, including Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Democrat John Stennis of Mississippi.

Gerald Nicosia, the historian, told the New York Sun that “Camil was deadly serious, brilliant and highly logical.” In his book he reports that “what Camil sketched was so explosive that the coordinators feared lest government agents even hear of it,” so they moved their meeting to a Mennonite hall.

There, according to six eyewitnesses interviewed by the Sun, the plan was discussed and voted down, with Mr. Kerry speaking out against it, although there is disagreement about how narrow the margin of defeat was. On the third day of the meeting, Mr. Kerry and three others resigned from their posts as national coordinators of VVAW. Historian Douglas Brinkley says Mr. Kerry told him he quit because of “personality conflicts and differences in political philosophy.” Mr. Kerry also told Mr. Brinkley that he was a “no show” in Kansas City.

Kerry later told two historians, Gerald Nicosia and Douglas Brinkley, that he was not there and that he had resigned from the organization before the meeting was held. In March 2004, reliable witnesses came forward and placed John Kerry at the meeting. In 2004, FBI files emerged establishing Kerry’s presence in Kansas City. His campaign conceded that Kerry somehow must have forgotten his involvement in the plot to assassinate U.S. senators while still on the executive committee of the VVAW.

Tax Cut Aftermath

Quotes of the Day

Heard around the Internet:

"Listening to John Kerry complain about the scrutiny his Vietnam record is getting is like Pamela Anderson complaining about the fact that guys keep staring at her breasts. What the hell did you expect?"

"There are people in American public life for whom Vietnam would be a worse campaign issue than it is for John Kerry. Jane Fonda, former members of the Kent State National Guard, Lt. William Calley of My Lai. That's about it."

"John Kerry actually did fight for his country, before he fought against it."

Sunday, August 29, 2004

George Will on the Nuclear Threat

As the GOP gathers, just blocks away from the site of the most deadly enemy attack on American soil in history, George Will takes a moment to reflect on the single highest priority for candidates: fighting the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Will reviews Graham Allison's new book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. Allison, an advisor to the Kerry campaign, outlines Extremist Islam's goal of killing four million Americans by detonating nuclear devices in four large cities. Allison outlines why this is an achievable goal for the terrorists.

...at least four times between 1992 and 1999 weapons-useable materials were stolen from Russian research institutes but recovered. How many thefts have not been reported?

...Russia denies that ``suitcase" nuclear weapons exist, so it denies reports that at least 80 are missing. Soviet military forces deployed 22,000 tactical nuclear warheads -- without individual identification numbers. Who thinks all have been accounted for?

...In December 1994, Czech police seized more than eight pounds of HEU in a parked car on a side street. A senior al Qaeda aide's proclaimed goal of killing 4 million Americans would require 1,400 9/11s, or one 10-kiloton nuclear explosion -- from a softball-sized lump of fissionable material -- in four large American cities...

...Allison argues that any hope for preventing, by diplomacy, nuclear terrorism depends on ``readiness to use covert and overt military force if necessary" against two potential sources of fissile material -- Iran and North Korea. But the candidate Allison [Kerry] is advising has opposed virtually every use of U.S. force in his adult lifetime...

Straight out of London

I wonder what our friends outside the US think about the whole SwiftVets affair? Hmmm, if I could only read a columnist from the UK who writes for one of the major papers there...

...How cocooned from reality do you have to be to think you can transform one of the most divisive periods in American history - in which you were largely responsible for much of the divisiveness - into a sappy, happy-clappy, soft-focus patriotic blur without anybody objecting? Most Vietnam veterans of my acquaintance loathe John Kerry, and, if he wasn't aware of that, he's too out of it to be President...

...Still, he's doing his best. After going around huffing and a-puffing that, if Bush wanted a debate about Vietnam, "Here is my answer: BRING. IT. ON," he's now gone to ground and is demanding Bush call it off. Meanwhile, his lawyers are threatening suits and the campaign's complained to the Federal Election Commission to get the Swift vets taken off air.

His hagiographer Douglas Brinkley, after an intriguing interview with the Telegraph's David Rennie, seems to have entered the witness protection programme. If this campaign were any more inept, Michael Moore would be making a documentary claiming Kerry's a Republican plant secretly controlled by Karl Rove and the House of Saud.

The Quagmire

Excellent recap of the current state of the campaign from Mark Alexander. The term 'unraveling' comes to mind, as do a few other choice terms.

...Last March, [the] Demo National Committee... estimated that Kerry would have to win the hearts and minds of veterans in order to defeat George W. Bush. So he wrapped Kerry in his embellished war record and, a month later, took a cheap shot at President Bush, proclaiming that he was AWOL during his last year of service as an Air National Guard fighter pilot...

Right about now, McAuliffe and Kerry are wishing they'd never fired that shot...

[Bush] wanted to fly fighter jets, he earned his wings, and he logged many air defense hours in an F-102 Delta Dagger with the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG. Mr. Bush's unit was subject to rotation in Vietnam under the Palace Alert Program. In fact, 15 F-102 pilots were killed in Vietnam, but American involvement in that conflict was de-escalating by 1972, and Bush was honorably discharged from his service with the ANG...

After graduating, Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment so he could study in... Paris. His deferment denied, Kerry then calculated that he could avoid Vietnam by joining the Naval Reserves, where he'd likely be able to serve stateside even if his unit was activated. Kerry's service record indicates that on 18 February 1966 he enlisted in the USNR under "inactive" status. This... [counters the] assertion that Kerry "volunteered" for dangerous swift boat duty while George W. Bush somehow slunk off to fly fighter-jets.

As fate would have it, Kerry's reserve unit was activated, while the President's ANG unit remained stateside -- yet both circumstances were far beyond the control of these two junior officers...

The Kerry Petition

There are over 125,000 signers of an online petition that John Kerry should be "...Prosecuted and Disqualifed from National Office". Might this be a tad over the top? Read on. Disclaimer: I haven't made up my mind yet. It is interesting that, according to Fox News, Kerry admitted to war crimes while under oath. You have to wonder whether he simply perjured himself, or whether he is a self-confessed war criminal. Either way, it's a problem.

...Kerry has a long and well-documented history of providing "aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of war -- particularly in the case of North Vietnam, Nicaragua and Cuba. Kerry, by his own account of his actions and protests, violated the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Code while serving as a Navy officer. Kerry met, on two occasions, with North Vietnamese negotiators in 1970 and 1971, willingly placing himself in violation of Article three, Section three of the U.S. Constitution, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare.

Thus, in accordance with the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President ... having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof...

Pay no attention to Hillary behind the curtain

T believes that Hillary is secretly funding the SwiftVets, if only because the Kerry campaign has, within just a few weeks, become stuck in a La Brea-sized tarpit dug by John O'Neill and friends. C'mon, that has to be the work of the Clintons! There are rumors that Sandy Berger was seen furtively leaving John O'Neill's condo last week with an empty suitcase, but that's probably just a coincidence.

...Delegates to next week’s Democratic National Convention already have an idea about 2008 if presidential candidate John Kerry should lose this fall: They would favor Hillary Rodham Clinton over John Edwards as their next standardbearer...

Note: Berger was not seen leaving O'Neill's condo. This is an Internet rumor, which I have officially just started for personal reasons involving irony and sarcasm. Now, just move along, there's nothing to see here.

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Judicial Watch rains fire down on John Kerry

This isn't good for the DNC: Non-partisan Judicial Watch was established in 1994 and serves as a legal and ethical and "watchdog" over government, judicial and legal systems. It is non-partisan and non-profit. And it is raining fire down on John Kerry's campaign. To wit:

FBI: Kerry Accepted Laundered Contributions

Senator Also May Have Set Up Meetings Between Chinese Firms, U.S. Officials

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released recently declassified documents showing that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accepted laundered contributions for his 1996 re-election campaign from the Communist Chinese government and that, in exchange, he may have arranged meetings between Chinese aerospace executives and U.S. government officials.

Obtained from the FBI through Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act requests, the documents are related to the FBI’s “Chinagate” investigation into the Clinton campaign’s acceptance of contributions from Communist Chinese government sources...

...“These disturbing FBI documents raise further questions about Sen. Kerry’s involvement in what looks like a quid pro quo (cash for meetings) with the Communist Chinese,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton...

The Missing 94

The Chicago Sun-Times, hardly a bastion of conservative thought, is peeling the layers of Kerry's onion. And what they're finding ain't pretty. According to the Naval Personnel Office, there are 94 pages of Kerry's records unreleased, pending Kerry's sign-off on a Form 180. The Sun-Time opines that many of the pages relate to Kerry's honorable discharge, which was delayed six years after the date listed on his web site. What delayed Kerry's discharge? The answer could be extremely damaging, if this report is accurate...

94 pages of records unreleased?

Reporting by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs points out that although the Kerry campaign insists that it has released Kerry's full military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full file."

What could that more than 100 pages contain? Questions have been raised about President Bush's drill attendance in the reserves, but Bush received his honorable discharge on schedule. Kerry, who should have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972 -- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years? This raises serious questions about Kerry's performance while in the reserves that are far more potentially damaging than those raised against Bush.

Experts point out that even the official military records get screwed up. Milavic is trying to get mistakes in his own DD214 file corrected. In his opinion, "these entries are not prima facie evidence of lying or unethical behavior on the part of Kerry or anyone else with screwed-up DD214s."

Burkett, who has spent years working with the FBI, Department of Justice and all of the military services uncovering fraudulent files in the official records, is less charitable: "The multiple citations and variations in the official record are reason for suspicion in itself, even disregarding the current swift boat veterans' controversy."

Judicial Watch Calls For Investigation

Judicial Watch... today filed a request with the U.S. Navy and the Defense Department for an investigation into the awards granted to Sen. John Kerry during his service with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. Judicial Watch also requested that military authorities investigate Kerry’s anti-war activities, including his meeting with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations in Paris, while a member of the Naval Reserve...

New York Times linked to Kerry Campaign

The New York Times, which challenged the credibility of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth because of links to the Bush campaign, has had its own objectivity called into question due to its fund-raising ties to the Kerry campaign.

The network of financial connections between Kerry's campaign and the Times is extensive. Although the Times has an allegedly official “ban” on political campaign contributions, a simple search on “opensecrets.org” reveals that at least two editors in the employ of the Times, Christine Muhlke and Elizabeth Stewart, have contributed at least $1,500 to John Kerry’s campaign efforts.

These are individuals who have direct influence on the selection of stories that run in the Times and its companion magazine - and they are on the record giving money out of their own pockets directly to the Kerry campaign.

At least two other employees of the Times - Alan Flippen and William Usuik - have contributed $1,250 to Kerry.

Alternatively, not a single employee of the Times has contributed to President Bush or any other Republican candidate or organization. This fact, i.e. the fact that influential individuals working for the New York Times have contributed money directly to Kerry, and Kerry alone, is quite troubling and seriously calls into question the objectivity of that news outlet. Further, the financial connection between John Kerry, the Democrats, and the New York Times goes beyond mere employees.

The New York Times Co. is effectively owned and controlled by the Sulzberger family. At least one Sulzberger family member, Dr. Judith P. Sulzberger (who owns, de jure, approximately 5 percent of the New York Times voting shares, or over about 7 million shares), has donated the maximum ($2,000) directly to Kerry (on March 8).

Dr. Sulzberger has also contributed $5,000 to “Victory Campaign 2004” (which finds radical leftist 527 groups such as Americans Coming Together and The Media Fund) and $20,000 to the Democrat National Committee (DNC Services Corp.). So, in the aggregate, an individual exercising de jure ownership/control over the New York Times Co. has donated in excess of $27,000 to Kerry and other far-left efforts to defeat the president.

The New York Times, in major stories, has used donor-donee connections to call into question the credibility and objectivity of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth...

Friday, August 27, 2004

The John Kerry Timeline!

Forward this exciting timeline to all of your friends! And here's a fun game you can play at home: print this page out, cut the quotes into separate pieces of paper, shuffle them up, and guess which years Kerry said them... it's entertaining, wholesome fun for the whole family!

1970

“I’m an internationalist... I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." (Harvard Crimson)

[I want] “to almost eliminate CIA activity." (Harvard Crimson)

1971

"Our democracy is a farce; it is not the best in the world." (Newsmax)

"I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others in that I shot in free fire zones, used harassment and interdiction fire, joined in search and destroy missions, and burned villages. All of these acts were established policies from the top down, and the men who ordered this are war criminals." (William Fullbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee)

1984

"The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military and a presumed 'window of vulnerability' which we now know not to exist." (Accuracy in Media)

“We are continuing a defense buildup that is consuming our resources with weapons systems that we don't need and can't use." (Accuracy in Media)

“...[t]here’s no excuse for casting even one vote for unnecessary weapons of destruction, and as your Senator, I will never do so," (Newsmax)

1985

"We believe this is a wonderful opening for a peaceful settlement... Is this administration going to overthrow the government of the Sandinistas no matter what they do?", discussing the Communist Sandanistas... Secretary of State George Shultz was sufficiently disgusted with Kerry that he publicly denounced him for 'dealing with the communists' and letting himself be 'used'. (Accuracy in Media)

1986

Admitting that the evidence tying Libya to the disco bombing was “irrefutable," Kerry said after the raid, "It is obvious that our response was not proportional to the disco bombing... There are numerous other actions we can take, in concert with our allies, to bring significant pressure to bear on countries supporting or harboring terrorists." (Newsmax)

1996

"...look at all the potential threats of the world, and when you add the expenditures of all of our allies... you have to stop and say... 'What is it that we are really preparing for in a post-cold-war world?'" (Congressional Record, p. S5061)

1997

“Now that [the Cold War] is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow…?" (Intellectual Conservative)

2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary-- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." (Senate speech)

"The Iraqi regime's record over the decade leaves little doubt that Saddam Hussein wants to retain his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and to expand it to include nuclear weapons. We cannot allow him to prevail in that quest." (JohnKerry.com)

2003

March: "If America is at war, I won't speak a word without measuring how it'll sound to the guys doing the fighting when they're listening to their radios in the desert." (Boston Globe)

April: "What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States" (Boston Globe)

2004

"I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it." (Newsmax)

Postscript

Kerry voted against the B-1 Bomber, the B-2 Stealth Bomber, the F-14, the F-15, and F-16 fighters, the Harrier, AH-64 Apache Helicopters, Patriot Missiles, the Aegis Guided Missile Cruiser, the Trident Missile System, the M-1 Abrams Tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and the Tomahawk Cruise Missile. And those are only the highlights.

“[Kerry] voted against the first Gulf War in 1991... He offered an amendment to cut $1 1/2 billion from our intelligence funds at a time we were engaged in … serious intelligence work relative to the war against terror, a $300 million cut the year before the USS Cole was attacked, a $300 million cut the year before the embassies in East Africa were attacked, a $300 million cut the year before the Khobar Towers were attacked by the terrorists, two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center..." (Gillespie, CBS Face the Nation)

Executive Summary

Kerry has been consistently wrong every issue of substance regarding foreign policy and the military throughout his entire adult life.

He viciously fought Reagan's attempt to end the Cold War, to no avail.

He viciously fought the anti-Communist Contras in Nicaragua, to no avail.

He supported Clinton's failed policies on North Korea and the Middle East.

He opposed countless critical weapons systems, including nearly every modern weapons system with which we wage war today.

He called for billions to be cut from the intelligence budget even as the threat of Islamic Terrorism grew (and he missed a huge percentage of intelligence committee meetings to boot).

And he voted to send men into war and then voted against the funds to support them.

Kerry is simply unfit to be Commander-in-Chief. Especially in this, the nuclear age of terrorism.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Dessicated Husk

This entertaining missive is from OpinionJournal:

We were traveling earlier this week, so we missed John Kerry's appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. But something tells us the show was a lot less entertaining than Dana Stevens's review of it in Slate. That something is Stevens's review itself. As you read this, keep in mind that she's a Kerry supporter:

"Kerry's charisma was less than zero: It was negative. He was a charm vacuum, forced to actually borrow mojo from audience members. He was a dessicated [sic] husk, a tin man who really didn't have a heart. His lack of vibrancy, his utter dearth of sex appeal made Al Gore look like Charo."

No doubt this is Kerry's clumsy effort to prove he's no Sitzpinkler. Stevens also notes that despite the damage the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have done to him, Kerry has failed to understand that his "war hero" act has worn thin (emphasis in original):

"When the interview was over and Kerry rose to leave, he caused audible groans in my household by saluting the audience (just as he did at the opening of his convention speech: 'John Kerry reporting for duty.' Lieutenant Kerry, your first order is to stop saluting the audience. It makes you look like a total tool)..."

John E. O'Neill vs. the Washington Post

John E. O'Neill of SwiftVets takes on all comers at the Washington Post. A "searing" read...

Bethlehem, Pa.: Mr. O'Neill, you are questioning the validity of medals awarded to John Kerry by the U.S. government. Aren't you also by implication questioning the competency of the medal eligibility determinations made by U.S. military brass? If so, aren't you in reality calling into question the authenticity of every medal awarded to every U.S. serviceman? If so, how do we differentitate the "good" medals from the "bad" medals?

John E. O'Neill: A portion of the book deals with the incidents in which John Kerry obtained medals. With respect to John Kerry's first Purple Heart the book demonstrates that it was from a self inflicted wound in the absence of hostile fire. It was denied by the commanding officer at the time Grant Hibbard. It was granted only three months later when Kerry applied after all who had known the facts had left Vietnam. With respect to Kerry's third Purple Heart Kerry represented to the Navy that he had received shrapnel from an underwater mine. He know admits that he had wounded himself earlier in the morning playing around with a grenade. The would was minor and superficial. The Naval award system particularly with purple hearts depends on a self reporting system relying on integrity. Kerry gamed that system by submitting false information to the Navy. He used the three Purple Hearts to get out of Vietnam 243 days before his one year tour ended. No one else in the history of our unit ever reviewed a Purple Heart for a self inflicted wound. Neither did anyone else leave early because of three minor scratches. None of which resulted in an hour lost or involved more than bandaid and tweezers. The Naval System depends on the integrity of a Naval officer. Kerry didn't have it.
_______________________

St Augustine, Fla.: Mr. O'Neil, are you saying that John Kerry lied when he reported the information he had received about atrocities in Vietnam to Congress? Are you saying there were not attrocities committed in Vietnam or that they should not have been reported?

John E. O'Neill: All atrocities in Vietnam should have been reported to investigative authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Neither John Kerry nor his associates in VVAW ever reported a single atrocity to the Naval investigative service or any other law enforcement authority. Instead Kerry made a general charge that rape, murder and mayhem was occurring on a day to day basis with the awareness of officers at all levels of command. On the Dick Cavett show in June 1971 I asked Kerry to itemize the specific atrocities that he had seen. He was unable to name any except generalizations. He lied to the United States Congress and to the world when he claimed that our policies in Vietnam were criminal policies and that our troops to the lowest levels were criminals carrying out murder and mayhem on a daily basis. It is one thing to be against the war in Vietnam, it is another to criminalize the kids that the country sent to fight it. Kerry did the second. That was wrong.

Quote of the Day

"John Kerry has opposed researching, developing, and deploying the missile defense system that will protect us against the missiles that North Korea researched, developed, and deployed under the terms of the agreement that Bill Clinton negotiated with it in 1994."

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The Iran Factor

There is one issue in this election that overrides every other in importance.

Experts believe that Iran will have the capability of building nuclear weapons (and possibly delivering them into Israel via missile attack) within six to thirty months. This effort has continued, and will continue, despite efforts at peacemaking, economic incentives, threatened boycotts, and other mechanisms of appeasement. Iran has already told us this.

To place any acceleration of this work at Bush's feet is not only disengenuous, it is provably false. The A.Q. Kahn nuclear parts network (Islamabad to Tehran to Pyongyang) grew and thrived under Clinton's watch, even though the ex-President knew what was occurring! The network, of course, was exposed and smashed under Bush's watch.

North Korea's research and development of nukes occurred only after Clinton (through Madeline Albright) was deluded into signing an agreement that would limit their Plutonium production. Only now do we know what North Korea was doing during the Clinton years: they were building nuclear weapons.

Do we want Iran to have nuclear weapons? Uhmm, that would be "no". Why? The US State Department calls the Islamic Republic of Iran the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism." Iran continues to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other groups based in the Middle East and around the world. It has been linked to numerous attacks on civilians in Israel and the Khobar Towers truck bombing, which killed 19 US servicemen. In fact, it has an unblemished history of sponsoring terrorism.

Thus, the only question that matters is this:

Does John Kerry have the courage to act unilaterally to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons capability?

We know that Bush has the courage to do so. We know that Europe will leave it to the Americans (or Israelis) while trying to make a buck -- or a Euro -- off the deal. Kerry's record of equivocation is, at best, unsettling. And his vacuous two-decade Senate career proves, quite simply, that he is unprepared to deal with any strategic military and intelligence issue of significance.

Kerry would almost certainly attempt to appease Iran, with an international community, and he would disavow a preemptive attack. Why do I make this assumption? Because he has already told us this.

The results would likely be the following.

Iran would finish building nuclear weapons. It would then use nuclear weapons, either by feeding them to proxies (terrorist organizations such as those described above) or by launching an attack against Israel to meet its stated goal of destroying the Jewish state. Iran's history is not mysterious. It is consistent and long-standing: they will use any and all means to attack innocent civilians using increasingly powerful means. The results of such an attack would truly be catastrophic.

How would Israel respond to such an attack? With its nuclear submarines, perhaps? How would the U.S. Government respond to, say, the vaporization of lower Manhattan through the detonation of an Iran-sponsored nuclear weapon? The U.S. would respond in kind. The American people would demand it (don't believe it? Think about what has happened just since 9/11).

I therefore believe that a John Kerry presidency could very well lead to nothing less than a full-scale, nuclear world war. A vote for John Kerry may very well represent a vote for the end of civilization.

Alarmist? I don't think so. I would welcome countervailing opinions, provided they are substantiated (I took the time to substantiate my opinions... so you can too :-).

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Worst Software Disasters

From John Dvorak of PC Magazine, the Bottom Ten Clunkers of Computer Programming. The products include Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Access (no, not the database, the first Microsoft Access), IBM TopView (ah, the memories of mouse-driven crashes... good times... good times) and Framework. I'll leave the exercise of guessing #1 to you, my valued reader...

John Kerry calls Bob Dole: the Conversation

From Newsmax:

Presidential candidate John Kerry telephoned former Sen. Bob Dole this morning to complain about Dole's demand a day earlier that he apologize to Vietnam veterans for protesting the war, the one-time Republican presidential candidate revealed Monday afternoon.

"He said he was very disappointed, we'd been friends. I said John, we're still friends, but [the Swiftvets] have First Amendment rights, just as your people have First Amendment rights."

Dole told Kerry, "I'm not trying to stir anything up, but I don't believe every one of these people who have talked about what happened are Republican liars. And very frankly, Bush is my guy, and I'm tired of people on your side calling him everything from a coward to a traitor to everything - a deserter."

Dole said he urged Kerry, "Why don't you call George Bush today and say, 'Mr. President, let's stop all this stuff about the National Guard and Vietnam - and let's talk about the issues."

But the Republican war hero shot back, "You don't have to. You've got all the so-called mainstream media, plus you've got MoveOn.org and all these other groups that have spent millions and millions of dollars
trying to tarnish Bush's image."

"Don't tell me you don't know what some of these people are doing," he told Kerry.

"Everybody likes quiet heroes," Dole added, saying he told Kerry, "John, everybody knows you were in Vietnam and the less you say about it, the better."

Dole said he tried to end the tense conversation cordially by telling Kerry, "I wish you good luck, up to a point."

Missing Pages

The CommandPost notes that 20 pages disappeared from the Kerry website.

The Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents yesterday from its website after The Boston Globe quoted a Navy officer who said the documents wrongly portrayed Kerry’s service. Edward Peck had said he — not Kerry — was the skipper of Navy boat No. 94 at a time when the Kerry campaign website credited the senator with serving on the boat. The website had described Kerry’s boat as being hit by rockets and said a crewmate was injured in an attack. But Peck said those events happened when he was the skipper. The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed...

October Surprise: Incoming!!

The Swiftvets board has some rumblings of an "October Surprise". That would be major revelations that will (allegedly) further damage Kerry. Here's the heart of the discussion:

Even my brothers in SBVT don't know it yet, but Kerry (pituie) is in for an even bigger supprise before then. How is he going to disprove copies of the actual documents created during his time in Nam which proves what we have been saying. Radio logs, damage reports, spot reports, After action reports... the list goes on. Within the next three days I will be disclosing to the media the location of all the original documents, and how to contact the holder of those documents. Ever wonder where all those reports we wrote went when we left there. I don't. because I know.

Kerry!!! Incoming!!! Stand by for heavy rolls to starboard then port.!!!

Let that be a lesson to you officers out there. Treat your communications pukes nicely. They handle and know an embarassing amount of information....as a certain person *cough* JFK *cough* is about to discover. If I am wrong, I am wrong. I don't think I am. Smile.

Monday, August 23, 2004

Why Kerry's War Record Matters

Excellent synopsis from Roger Franklin (Business Week) of the current state of Kerry's war record... and why it matters. Excerpt:

Kerry's conduct in [the] war remains relevant -- and not just because he has made his time in uniform both centerpiece and touchstone of his campaign, nor even, as the Swift Boat Veterans assert, because he painted his personal history in the false colors of faux heroics...

If Kerry did shade the truth, he sure wouldn't be the first politician to do so. Only last week, voters were treated to the spectacle of Kerry point man and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin fulminating about the Swift Vets' ads. Yet Harkin is himself an exposed fabulist, having once claimed to have jousted in his F-4 Phantom with North Vietnamese MiGs.

The truth? He never saw combat, spent his war ferrying military planes from Japan to the Philippines for routine servicing, and apologized for his fictions when subsequently exposed by fellow Senator Barry Goldwater.

...So why pick on Kerry? Only this: Harkin doesn't want to be President. While voters will never know -- can never know -- if Kerry deserved those medals and his early ticket home, they can be absolutely sure that he did worse than merely embroider his exploits in the years that followed.

Kerry threw his medals over the White House fence -- except he didn't. He slept out on the Mall in Washington, D.C., with anti-war protesters -- except he didn't, having actually bunked down in a borrowed townhouse with Newsweek reporter Robert Sam Anson, according to an investigative story in the New York Observer.

And most troubling of all, Kerry has said he spent the last days of 1968 on a secret mission in Cambodia, under fire and listening to President Nixon deny that Kerry or any other U.S. servicemen were operating on the wrong side of the border. In one version, it was the Khmer Rouge doing the shooting. In another, drunken South Vietnamese troops celebrating Christmas, which isn't even a good fable, since Buddhists generally don't get too excited about the birth of the Christians Messiah.
Oh, and another thing: It was President Lyndon Johnson Kerry would have been listening to, not Nixon, since the Republican was still four weeks away from his inauguration...

...one truth really does matter in Presidential politics: Boasts and a talent for self-serving fiction are no recommendations for a lease on the Oval Office.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

What Kerry Needs To Do To Successfully Destroy SwiftVets

This is the most cogent analysis I've yet seen as to how Kerry can address the Swift Vet charges... once and for all (author: "manofaiki"). Emphasis mine.

What the Kerry camp needs to do to effectively counter the Swift Vet charges:

1. Sign form 180 and release all of John Kerry's military records.

2. Provide damage report and wound reports from the No Man Left Behind incident that provides details about just how many bullet holes were shot into the 5 boats involved, and how many of the over 20 men involved suffered a gunshot wounds during this intense firefight. By effectively demonstrating that there was enemy fire during this incident, and that some of the sailors did indeed suffer gunshot wounds, Kerry's campaign can counter the claim there was no enemy fire.

3. Have statements from the other crewmembers of Kerry's boat to the effect that Steve Gardner is lying about the 'Sampan Incident' where he claims he shot a father and a little boy to death, and in which they took a mother and infant girl aboard. Have Kerry's other crewmembers state that the after-action report Gardner called attention to is completely accurate: 4 VC were killed and two VC were Captured in Action.

4. Provide statements from other crewmembers of Kerry's boat to the effect that they do remember being in Cambodia with John Kerry, either on Christmas Day or later on while dropping off Special Forces operatives.

5. Have other crewmembers of Kerry's boat sent out to appear in interviews to counter Gardner and other Swift Vets instead of professional political hacks. Gardner was there, he was an eyewitness and so are many of the Swift Vets to the events they are making claims about. Lanny Davis, James Carville, and John Hurley were not there. Neither was Tad Devine. You can only effectively counter eyewitnesses with other eyewitnesses.

6. Have Kerry address the specific charges being leveled about his medals. If the SwiftVets are claiming the first Purple Heart wound was a 'scratch' not worthy of the medal, have Kerry come out and talk about how bad the wound was, where it was located on his arm and show any scar that still remains. Let him show the scars on his leg where the shrapnel supposedly still resides.

It must be noted that thus far, even though the Swift Vet story is building steam every day, John Kerry and his campaign managers have refused to do any of the six things listed above.

1. Kerry adamantly REFUSES to sign Form 180. Whenever he or his spokespersons are asked they insist they have released ALL records, but they clearly have not. Paperwork for Kerry's first Purple Heart has manifestly NOT been released, among several other documents. If Kerry has in fact released all of his available military records, as he claims, then there is no reason NOT to sign a Form 180.

2. Kerry's camp keeps referring to the medal citations that he and Larry Thurlow received for the No Man Left Behind event, and the after action report which Kerry wrote, which describes enemy fire coming from the banks during this action. The medal citations are based on the after action report, and since no other officer involved in this event has ever said there was enemy fire, Kerry must have written it. The most effective way to counter the over 12 eyewitness accounts that claim there was no enemy fire would be to produce the damage reports to the 5 boats involved in this incident from gunfire. It would be to produce medical reports about gunshot wounds treated due to the alleged enemy fire. Kerry's camp has NOT produced any such documentation. The Swift Vet eyewitnesses claim the 4 other boats were stationary around PCF 3 for more than an hour doing repair and recovery operations, as well as treating the crewmen of that boat that were injured when the mine went off. That was plenty of time for these sailors and their boats to be hit by enemy small arms fire if indeed there were any. Instead, Kerry's campaign keeps insisting that since the medal citations and the after-action report written by Kerry mentions enemy fire, the matter is closed and no damage or medical reports need to be produced.

3. None of Kerry's other crewmembers have shown up on any of the networks as a counterpart to a Swift Vet for Truth spokesman during a debate. All the spokespeople for Kerry's camp have been professional poltical people, not Vietnam eyewitnesses to the specific events being discussed. Another Kerry boatcrew member would be the most effective challenger to Steve Gardner's account of the 'Sampan Incident'. Such a person could say "Steve, I was there, we did kill four VC and capture two just like the report says." Instead we get John Hurley sputtering that Gardner is making it all up. Kerry's camp has had two weeks to get their eyewitness out there, including Kerry himself. They have not done so.

4. Kerry has pretty much given up on the Christmas in Cambodia, but has also 'floated' the idea that he was there later on dropping off Special Forces. All Kerry has to do is produce crewmembers of his own boat who can look into a camera and say "I was in Cambodia with John Kerry". They have NOT done so.

5. Once again, the best counter to an eyewitness is another eyewitness. Kerry claims to have up to 13 eyewitnesses on his side versus over 60 for the Swift Vet's For Truth. The Swift Vet's eyewitnesses can be seen on TV and heard on the radio almost every day for the past two weeks. They have been on Hardball with Christ Matthews, Hannity and Colmes, The No Spin Zone, Rush Limbaugh, and more. Kerry's eyewitnesses have been............................nowhere. Unseen and unheard. Whenever John O'Neil, Larry Thurlow, Steve Gardner or another Swift Vet is going to appear, the Kerry Campaign has had opportunity after opportunity to put one of Kerry's boat crewmembers on the show as well. They have NOT done so. As a matter of fact, the one statement I can find where one of Kerry's Swift Vet backers discusses the Christmas in Cambodia controversy, Meideros says he doesn't remember ever being in Cambodia with John Kerry.

6. Kerry has refused to address the specific charges regarding the wounds that resulted in his first and third Purple Hearts. Not once has he said that the wound to his arm that resulted in his first Purple Heart was a 'substantial' or 'serious' wound. He has not stated how many stitches were required to close it or how much blood he lost due to it. Numerous eyewitnesses, including his commanding officer, state the wound was a mere scratch. He has not produced a SINGLE MEDICAL RECORD that discusses the nature of the wounds for which he got his first and his third Purple Heart, and I am not sure about the second one, I will have to check. All the eyewitnesses besides himself state these first and third Purple Heart wounds were so slight they had nothing but contempt for Kerry as they watched him try to wrangle medals out of them. After Kerry's attempt to get his first Purple Heart for the slight scratch on his arm, the one where his C.O. Grant Hibbard threw him out of his office, Kerry was assigned to take his boat to An Thoi with another swift boat commanded by Lieutenant Tedd Peck, who told him "Kerry, follow me no closer than a thousand yards. If you get any closer, I'll teach you what a real Purple Heart is."

Instead of doing these six things that would effectively counter the Swift Vet's For Truth ads and book, Kerry has:

1. Filed a complait with the FEC claiming that Swiftboat Vets for Truth is funded and coordinated as a part of the Bush-Cheney campaign and not a real 527 organization.
2. Claimed all the Swift Vets For Truth, over 200 of them, are all Republicans who are lying.
3. Put pressure on TV stations and bookstores not to air the ads and to not display the book.
4. Asked Regenry, publishers of Unfit For Command, to cease publishing the book.
5. Claimed that President Bush is using the Swiftboat Vets For Truth to attack his war record and challenged the President to 'Bring it on!'.

Every step that Kerry has made on this issue has been a mis-step. He has changed his story, not provided any eyewitness to counter the specific Swift Vet charges, and has instead attempted to censor the charges by having the ads and the book pulled instead of answering the charges. He then makes every effort to tie the Swift Vets to the Bush campaign, the strategy being if he can prove Bush is funding and directing SBVFT the organization is instantly and automatically discredited and no one need look seriously at the charges that are being leveled against him.

Thus far, Kerry's defense has been misdirection and avoidance and attempts at censorship.

Speakers at Republican National Convention

Here's the speaking lineup for the GOP convention. The spectrum of opinion on social issues represented by this group is significantly wider and more moderate than the analagous Dem Convention. The Dem leadership has seemingly been hijacked by the Kerry, Dean, Kennedy, Pelosi, crew of the far, far, far Left.

Full disclosure: I, for one, consider myself a "Bill Weld" Republican... a moderate on most social issues, but fiscally conservative and completely aware that our highest priority, without question, is the war on terror.

Speakers at GOP Convention

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 62 - The mayor of New York is a self-made billionaire...
Rudolph Giuliani, 60 - The former New York mayor was praised for his leadership after the Sept. 11 attacks...
Sen. John McCain, 67 - The outspoken senator from Arizona... has campaigned heavily for Bush's re-election.
Laura Bush, 57 - The first lady is a former schoolteacher who met George W. Bush at a Texas barbecue...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 57 - The action-movie star turned politician took office last year as governor of California...
Sen. Zell Miller, 72 - The retiring Democratic senator from Georgia has endorsed Bush's re-election bid...
Gov. George Pataki, 59 - ...governor of New York, Pataki built a reputation as a moderate...

IT Myth 4: CIOs and CTOs have a greater need for business savvy than tech expertise

..."“Those CEOs and CIOs who are joined at the hip and who want only short-term ROI are myopic about where IT should be going technologically. An organization that really understands IT technologies and what to do to turn [those technologies] into genuine competitive advantage can be in a great position right now,” Zachmann contends...

Saturday, August 21, 2004

What's at Stake: 2004

This is a reprint of one of my earlier blog entries. I was motivated to write this because I wanted to express my concern with candidate Kerry's horrendous record on military and intelligence issues. Kerry has literally been on the wrong side of every major defense issue since he joined the Senate. This represents, God forbid, what could happen if Kerry were to be elected, to dismantle the Patriot Act, and to foist more responsibilities for US defense on "international" partners.

NYC ATOM ATTACK

Geostar 45 satellite captures detonation moments after attack

Islamic Group Claims Responsibility

(FLASH/AP) At approximately 5:15pm EST yesterday, terrorists associated with Ansar al Islam detonated a 15 kiloton atomic weapon in the harbor near Manhattan's battery. Radio reports indicated that the terrorists were operating a speedboat and that a pursuit by the United States Coast Guard was underway when the explosion occurred.

Three Nuclear Emergency Response Teams (NEST) were on the scene and initial casualty reports estimated as many as 75,000 dead and 250,000 wounded. Area hospitals were overwhelmed with cases of severe burns, radiation sickness, and major injuries. A triage facility was established at 103th street/Corona Plaza and all medical personnel were asked to report immediately to their respective facilities.

A shaken president John Kerry addressed the nation via radio at 8 pm EST. "This dark day has tested the mettle of the American people," he stated, "our thoughts and prayers are with those who have died, and those who suffer. Time and time again we have risen to the challenge, defeating tyrants, extremists and dictators who would fight freedom. And this time, it will be no different. I ask all Americans to band together, to help your neighbors, to reassure one another in this dark hour. I can assure you that we will strike back. We will strike hard. And that justice will be done."

Kerry went on to issue a presidential directive reinstating the Patriot Act, which had been dismantled less than twelve months after his election. He also declared martial law in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, and Detroit, where National Guard troops were enforcing a curfew. There were unconfirmed reports of widespread looting and civil unrest in areas surrounding New York City.

Economic Impact Felt Worldwide

The New York Stock Exchange has suspended trading while operations are moved to a backup facility near Philadelphia. Redundant computer operations for most of Wall Street have ensured that account and trading information is intact.

Oil prices skyrocketed to over $70 a barrel immediately after the explosion and then plummeted to $45 as the economic impact of a potential worldwide recession loomed.

Gold shot overnight to 900/oz. and the value of the dollar fell nearly a third in overnight trading.

The NASDAQ stock market intends to resume trading within the week, operating from its redundant Chicago facility.

Retaliation: Shock and Anger

Senior Pentagon officials tell the AP that war plans are underway and that a strategic nuclear response "is being contemplated".

Former CIA Analyst Robert Acres told CNN that NEST is capable of determining the source of the nuclear material used by the terrorists. "When that source is located, I can assure you that there will be hell to pay."

A CNN/Gallup Poll taken last night asked viewers which potential target would be struck first in a military response. Over 50% answered Iran, 25% North Korea, 20% Pakistan, 12% Mecca, 3% Medina, and 5% all of the named targets.

There were unconfirmed reports from Norfolk, Virginia that Task Force 134, the US Pacific Fleet's Nuclear Submarine Group, had been ordered to the Indian Ocean.

Continuity of Government

Upon the first reports of the detonation, a Continuity of Government (COG) operation began moving the president, vice-president, cabinet, key congressional leaders, military and intelligence personnel to a secure facility in West Virginia. No further details were available at press time.

Claims of Responsibility

Within hours of the attack, a web site affiliated with the Al Jazeera network posted a claim of responsibility by Ansar al Islam reading "Praise be to God, we have the struck the enemy a shattering blow and we will strike again before it can recover. God is great, and thanks be unto God for delivering us this victory. We will fight the infidel crusaders wherever they may live, from this time forward, until they have been eradicated from the face of the earth."

Harsh Criticism of Policy

Hours after the attack, the president's critics were harshly reprimanding his dismantling of the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security, and his efforts to place the responsibilities of defense and intelligence-gathering with the United Nations.

Former president George W. Bush, speaking from his ranch in Texas, said, "This is tragic in so many ways. The loss of life, the loss of property, the loss of confidence. But I firmly believe that this did not have to happen. The United Nations, or any multi-national coalition, cannot protect the United States. Only we can protect ourselves."

Friday, August 20, 2004

Sellout

This is interesting. Emphasis mine.

If most of Kerry's fellow Swift veterans don't support him, then who were all those guys with him at the Democratic Convention? They made it appear that Kerry has the complete support of his "Band of Brothers" from Vietnam.

John Kerry has been able to convince about 13 men who served on Swift boats in the Mekong Delta to support him, 7 or 8 of whom were at various times crew members on his own 6-man boat. Those are the men the Kerry campaign so prominently featured at the Democratic Convention. The photograph we have posted at SwiftVets.com shows Kerry with 19 of his fellow Swift boat OICs (Officers In Charge) in Coastal Division 11. Four OICs were not present for the photograph. Only one of his 23 fellow OICs from Coastal Division 11 supports John Kerry.

Overall, more than 250 Swift boat veterans are on the record questioning Kerry's fitness to serve as Commander-in-Chief. That list includes his entire chain of command -- every single officer Kerry served under in Vietnam. The Kerry game plan is to ignore all this and pretend that the 13 veterans his campaign jets around the country and puts up in 5-star hotels really represent the truth about his short, controversial combat tour.

The Swift boats fought in groups, so the other OICs who fought alongside Kerry know him well and can accurately describe what he did and did not do. In many cases Kerry's fellow OICs had a better perspective than his own crew members, since the latter had no way to determine whether he was following orders and how well he worked with his peers.

...Why do you want Senator John Kerry to release his entire military records?

We want Senator Kerry to tell the truth about his conduct in Vietnam to the American public. We were there. We know that there are many critical facts that Americans need to know -– facts that have not been disclosed. Releasing the complete set of Kerry's service records will provide some insight into that conduct.

...Hasn’t Senator Kerry already released his records?

No, Senator Kerry has disclosed only a selected portion of his records. Specifically, Senator Kerry has not disclosed the records leading to the award of the three purple hearts, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. There are also missing performance evaluations (called “Fitness Reports”) for certain periods of his service as a Navy officer. We call upon Senator Kerry to authorize the complete release of his military records by filing a simple two-page Form 180.

Does media bias really exist?

...People trying to persuade others to adopt their views are very likely to cite think-tank experts who agree with them. And the liberal lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action (their description of themselves) regularly grades politicians from 0 to 100 based on their votes on selected issues, with the most liberal members of Congress earning 100.

Two researchers have combined these two disparate ideas to come up with a measure of media bias that doesn't depend on journalists' own perceptions of where they fit on the political spectrum...

..."Our results show a very significant liberal bias," they write. "One of our measures found that The Drudge Report is the most centrist of all media outlets in our sample. Our other measure found that Fox News' Special Report is the most centrist."...

...The authors say they expected to find that the mainstream media leaned to the left, but they were "astounded by the degree." So when people say, for example, that The New York Times may be tilted left, but people can compensate for that by watching Fox News, they don't take into account that the Times is much further from the center than Fox. "To gain a balanced perspective, one would need to spend twice as much time watching Special Report as he or she spends reading The New York Times."...

One Giant Lift for Mankind

Gene Rychlak Jr. is the best bench-presser in the world. Powerlifting experts coo over the 6-foot-1-inch, 380-pound behemoth's physical attributes. His short arms bulge with massive triceps that propel eye-popping weights to the ceiling in an instant. The big stomach comes in handy, too—anything that stops the bar a couple of inches closer to lockout position can't be bad. So, what does it all add up to? Rychlak can bench-press 965 pounds...

Thursday, August 19, 2004

( Excel + Web ) / Multiple Companies = XLmerge

There is a new BadBlue product called XLmerge out, which lets Excel users all work on the same spreadsheets while still using Excel. The idea was spawned by a business application with which I'd had little familiarity: insurance claims adjustment.

Now here's the crazy thing about sharing Excel worksheets if you're all not on the same LAN: there isn't a way to do it. Period. Short of emailing around a copy, there wasn't a viable option until XLmerge debuted. It used to be as easy to share a spreadsheet as it was for Muqtada al Sadr to buy term life insurance.

Now imagine if you're involved with insurance claims adjustment. As I understand it, there are accountants adding and modifying insurance claims. There are adjustors verifying the claims and... uhmm... adjusting them. There are attorneys and auditors verifying the entire process. And they're all working on the same spreadsheets at the same time. And they love... LOVE... to use Excel, so they won't cede their work to a web application. And with multiple parties involved, emailing a spreadsheet around would be about as effective as a "Michael Moore Diet Plan".

The whole idea of XLmerge boils down to a "version control system" for Excel. Users go to a central, secure web site and download an Excel workbook. The current state of the sheet is saved as a "snapshot" for later comparison purposes. The users work in Excel to analyze and modify the entries. Then they upload the modified workbook to the central site. A process catches the upload operation and compares the new sheet with their snapshot. A list of deletes, inserts and updates are created and, if some safety checks tolerate it, the master copy of the workbook is modified. Not exactly the high drama of a "Saved by the Bell" episode, but close.

So it's basically a version control system... but one that doesn't require an explicit "check-out" operation that would lock the spreadsheet to modifications by other users. Locking out other users in this case would make about as much sense as "MTV Cribs" touring an ex-rap-star's double-wide.

So in this particular insurance claims application, I think there are about 16 users, several different companies, and 300 or so spreadsheets. So far, it seems to be a reasonable solution to a problem that, as far as I know, really had no effective solution. So anyone still emailing spreadsheets around in an error-prone process is kind of like John Kerry eating a Wendy's double. He didn't want to do it... he had to do it. Hopefully, they won't have to do that any longer.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Letters to the Editor

I've been crushed under a heavy workload and haven't been able to publish the many letters I receive regarding my blog. Here are a select few letters, which are pretty much representative of what I receive on a daily basis.

Dear Mr. Ross,

We wanted to point out an error in one of your recent blog entries. In fact, we do NOT recommend that our water-beds be filled with "Cheese Whiz [tm] to enhance the experience". In fact, filling our water-beds with any substance except water is almost surely a health and safety risk.

Yours in good hygiene,

Harley Posnucket, President
Harley's Discount Water-beds

Dear Mr. Ross,

Thank you very much for your recent contribution to our campaign^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hindependent organization. While a $5 gift certificate to Waffle House is certainly appreciated by my staffers, in the future please remember that nothing perks up a candidate like a stack of crisp, unmarked greenbacks.

Very truly yours,

George Sorros
MovinOn.org

Dear Sirs,

For years you and your cohorts have been giggling and chortling as you flagrantly mispronounce the name of our planet. For this reason, we hereby officially change its name to "Planet Sphincter". Please make a note of it.

Very truly yours,

The Citizens of the Planet Uranus
Planet Uranus
Outer Reaches of the Solar System

Dear Mr. Ross,

For the record, I take umbrage at your portrayal of me as a "big fat Republican". New flash: I've been on the Atkins diet for well over four days now and have lost upwards of six pounds.

Sincerely,

Michael Moore
New York City, New York

Dear Sirs,

We take exception to your oft-stated claim that "trial lawyers are trying to bankrupt" legitimate industries such as restaurants, firearm manufacturers, and dating services.

As a point of fact, our particular firm is responsible for bankrupting a whole host of companies in other industries as well, whether or not they deserve the legal burden we impose upon them. Why can't we greatly enrich ourselves at the expense of some deep-pocketed corporate fiefdoms? I mean, isn't that what capitalism is all about? Isn't that what makes America great?

Well, I for one, will not stand here idly while you bad-mouth the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Ad Wars

I could be mistaken, but television advertising has gotten much better (or at least, more effective) over the last fifteen or so years.

I have these tapes of great college basketball games that I made in the mid- to late-eighties. When I occasionally watch these old games, I'm struck by how bad some of the old commercials are. In fact, some are downright pathetic if we compare then and now. Here's an example: in 1987, a major insurance company ran a series of ads that featured a heart monitor tracing a heart beat. At least that's the most memorable part of the ad. Contrast that with today's equivalent: AFLAC's ubiquitous duck. That series of ads will probably run for a decade, or at least until a the duck overdoses, Belushi-style, on a coke/heroin "hardball". It ain't easy handling fame, even if you're a frickin' duck.

The beer wars are even better. Back in the day, you had the Budweiser Clydesdales (I never figured out how imagining the smell of horses**t sold a lot of beer, but maybe that's just me) and the "Tastes great, less filling" has-been sports celebs hawking Miller Lite.

Today, Miller is going after Anheuser-Busch in a big way. Their amusing "President of Beers" campaign ("...This is America, this isn't a Monarchy!...") was a nice jab at A-B. Then the carb counter ads (apparently, Miller Lite has only 3 carbohydrates compared to Bud Light's 420 carbohydrates, based upon my careful review of the commercial). And now Miller is running the taste tests, in which a Bud drinker:

a) sips an unmarked Miller beer and says, "mmmmmmmmmmm".
b) sips a Bud and then immediately gags, followed by a disgusting, lengthy sequence of projectile vomiting in which the camera is covered with goopy chunks

One can only imagine where this whole thing is going. Maybe Miller ads five years from now will show two brothers walking down the street with their dates. One is drinking a Miller, the other a Bud. The Bud drinker takes a sip and then spontaneously combusts, screaming as his entire body burns to a blackened crisp. The Miller brother looks over, shrugs and continues walking, this time with a beautiful girl on each arm.

Of course, the presidential election is going to escalate the entire debate. We've got groups like Move-on.org funding upwards of $50 million in TV ads (in what appear to be borderline-illegal soft-money campaign contributions). And then I'm sure some GOP bagman is funding similar ads pitching the viewpoint of groups like the Swiftboat Veterans, who are hammering Kerry on his service record.

Bottom line is I would love to know what Move-on's backers (George Soros?) are expecting out of a Kerry presidency that's worth $50 million. Where's CBS' crack investigative reporting on that topic? And who's actually funding the Swift-Vet's ads - and what do they want out of the deal?

I can envision how these campaign ads are going to escalate.

Kerry ad: shows battered troops in Iraq, flash-cutting scenes from Vietname back and forth, and ending with: "George Bush... he's gotten us into another Vietnam".

Bush ad: shows an Independence Day like special-effects sequence of New York City getting vaporized by a nuclear weapon, finishing with: "John Kerry thinks France will protect us. Do you?".

Let's just cut to the chase and air the really good ads!

DeskLog, Part V

A quick followup on the DeskLog concept. A large local company has expressed an interest in exploring the concept for proprietary use on their Intranet. I'll follow up in this space as ethical behavior and decorum permits. And don't giggle when I say that.